It was spun out of Macrovision Corp. after the unit was acquired by venture capital firm Thoma Bravo LLC in April 2008.

Macrovision retained the digital rights management (DRM) apps for which it is best-known. It changed its company name in July to Rovi Corporation.

Acresso, which the company said was derived from the Latin word "Cresco" for "to grow, increase" faced a "challenge" on its name from ERP software maker Agresso Software, said Randy Littleson, senior vice-president of marketing for Acresso.

"Our executive team decided that there were better ways to invest our time and money, and that we didn't need this distraction," Littleson said. "The action we're taking will let us avoid a potential lawsuit."

Littleson said the company considered changing its name to Installshield, being that it is its best-known product, but ultimately came to the conclusion that it didn't represent the breadth of its application stable.

He dismissed the notion, brought up by some bloggers, that the new name will cause legal trouble or just confusion with a solar and wind power company Flexera.

"We're quite aware of it. That's one of the reasons why it's Flexera Software," he said. "How similar are we to an energy company? We think this is very different, compared to when it was two software companies."